mulderandmonkeys

You can rest assured anyone that paid for a talk got their money's worth. I had got all my signatures etc and whilst waiting for the Lost talk thought I might eavesdrop on the Mads Mikkelsen talk. Although you could hear some of it most of it could not be made out that clearly to the point where it was a waste of time I think for anyone trying to get away with a freebie. I had paid for the Lost and Tobin Bell talks and had no regrets at all as the sound in the actual talk area was excellent ( something else Showmasters are to be congratulated on for rectifying after previous years problems etc ).

You do get the impression that Showmasters take note of what is said in here and it showed with this years LFCC being the best organised ever. I arrived on Sunday at 8.50 and by 9.10 had the two VQ tickets I wanted, the extra space was fantastic. Some great Lost guests and I was lucky enough to meet Tobin Bell who was my highlight. In what other circumstances do you get to meet Jigsaw, Napoleon Dynamite and Ben Linus !!!!!!!!!

I attended on Friday and Sunday from around Lunchtime onwards so had no trouble with the queues, yes it was hot that was caused by the weather and yes it was crowded but that was due to the great guests attending. I met Michael Traynor ( great guy who retweeted my screenshot of him from my favourite show ), Steve Coulter ( Banshee is fantastic !!! ), Clifton Collins ( told me a great and unrepeatable story ), William Forsythe ( great Boardwalk Empire inscription on my photo ), Darren Lyn Bousman ( more Saw guests needed ) and J La Rose ( great Saw photos but none from Banshee ! ), all of them were happy with table photos and I nearly always find the actors from America are much more at home with the convention setting and happy for photos etc. I also met John Ratzenberger ( photo shoot on Sunday as well ) and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe ( both very friendly but no table photos ). I was not sure how busy Catherine Tate would be but she was open queue by after Lunch although it was a very quick meet and her signature on my Office cast shot was in an area that makes it look like one of the other cast members had signed it, I imagine this was one of her first convention appearances so possibly she was a little nervous / not sure how to act etc etc. Personally I was happy with the weekend and the good news is now the shows are moving up a notch there is probably no guest they could not try and attract.. PUT ME DOWN FOR A DAVID DUCHOVNY DIAMOND PASS / MULDER AND SCULLY PHOTOSHOOT hint hint.....

Whilst I understand the point about reducing some photoshoot numbers so that more popular guests get their numbers increased what this means is less time at the signing table. Noah Wylie for example seems underpriced compared to others and his photoshoots seemingly sold above expectation so my guess is that if Sunday sells out it will be very hard to get his autograph. I know the current trend is for photos but Showmasters please remember everything your organisation is started with those of us getting autographs. Is is a little unfair that those who collect photos with their guests can pre-book and guarantee a meet whilst those of us that collect signatures cannot !!!! We need to start being able to pre-buy VQ or autograph tickets.

Arrived around 10:30 Sunday, thankfully it was pretty quiet as the concourse was full of bottlenecks etc, I thought the whole idea of being at the stadium was to use the big room downstairs like last year. I'm a big fan of having the event in Milton Keynes but bearing in mind previous issues on temperature etc, and it seeming that the main reason for cancelling one of the two MK events is late notification of football fixtures WHY HOLD THE EVENTS AT THIS VENUE ???? Unless Showmasters get the stadium for free why not look at alternative venues in MK. The three guests I met were great Steven Williams, Costas Mandylor and Chad Coleman, all happy to chat for a minute or two and pose for a picture. As always a big thank you to Showmasters for making it possible to meet these USA based actors.

I went on Sunday, met Lance Guest, C Thomas Howell and Mindy Sterling, all very friendly and with no queues etc I was done in no time. For a change you could walk arond the stalls and actually see what they had so I did that. Looking forward now to Collectormania at Milton Keynes which I always enjoy.

I attended on the Friday evening first and knew it was going to busy when the queue was substantially longer than the one I am used to on a Sunday morning. However inside was not too bad and I got signatures easily from the guests I wanted to meet Michael Madsen ( great guy, laid back, happy for photos etc etc, just seemed like a normal guy ), Lawrence Gilliard Jr ( very cheerful and impressed with my Wire DVD insert already signed by Idris Elba and Dominic West ) and Dina Meyer ( absolutely gorgeous and its impossible for her to be in her mid 40's !! ). I did want to buy a couple of photoshoot tickets but the queues were never ending and I could see it would take at least 2 hours to get served. My next visit was on Sunday and although I had an early bird ticket I did not arrive until around 1:30, was able to walk straight in literally as no one asked me for my ticket !!! This time there were no queues at the sale desk so I bought 2 photoshoot tickets for later on and then got autographs without any trouble from Robert Hays ( I made him laugh, how many people can say they've made a member of the Airplane team laugh !! ) and Curtis Armstrong ( very friendly and honest about his experiences on the show I was getting a photo from ). Headed over for the Michael Madsen talk which was a big improvement on previous talks in other years, there is no doubt having the MC / interviewer steered things in the right direction meaning he spoke about films we all knew ( last year at the Danny Glover talk there seemed to be an unofficial competition to see who could ask him about the most obscure film no-one else had heard of ). Next was the prize draw which was a complete fiasco, it was so amateurish and un-organised it was unfair on the audience and the three hapless presenters who seemed genuinely embarassed to be there. I would have paid £5 for the programme anyway but Showmaster shot themselves in the foot making such a big deal of the prize draws which should have been an added extra rather than the main reason to buy a programme !! Headed back for photoshoots with Michael Madsen and Lawrence Gilliard Jr both of which ran like clockwork with no problems etc. The only guest I missed out on was Summer Glau ( who knew she would be that popular, my VQ ticket was 880 !! and the guy giving them out said it was unlikely I would see her ) Obviously not everybody had as good a time as me, I had no interest in Stan Lee or Carrie Fisher or Ian McDiarmid so I was OK but do feel for those who missed out. Anyone can look back over my postings can see they are overwhelmingly positive to Showmasters who I am sure make a loss at some events however if you take a crowd figure of say 50,000 over the 3 days and then estimate an average of just 1 autograph and photshoot per atendee you are looking at gross revenue of around £3 million, an event like that cannot be staffed by a few dozen mostly teenage volunteers. Jason seems a nice well meaning guy and I am certain he wanted everyone to come away happy having met everyone but enthusiasm seems to have got the better of him. Most events of this size are planned and organised by a dedicated staff virtually over a full year and when you look at the number of events Showmasters now run I suspect he needs way more permanent management staff and teams dedicated to certain events at head office and on the day. I asked a very simple question to two staff manning the doors at the super stage ( did I need a ticket for the free Michael Madsen talk ) and neither knew, also one of the staff at the photo shoot area was very rude barking ' come on move along ' when it was her colleague struggling to seperate the stub on my ticket that caused a delay of no more than 3 or 4 seconds. I don't blame the staff member for that I suspect she and several others had had more than enough of the weekend by that stage !!. Bigger guests are great and I love Jason for that and all the people I have met over the years but bigger guests come with bigger responsabilities too.

It does not have to be right in the photo opps queue area, just have a desk a few yards away ( in the acres of empty space at the back of the hall ) that only sells tickets for the upcoming photo opportunity. How many times do we turn up to see a guest is no posed photos or such a great guest that you want a proper photo with them only to be put off spending money because of ridiculous queues. I can think of no other business where they expect you to queue for upto 2 hours to spend money.

I suggested this before, I was going to buy 2 photo opportunities but gave up as the queues were taking so long so thats £45 virtually pure profit Showmasters missed out on. More to the point why not sell tickets for photo opps and talks at the talk or photo area at the time the same as for the autographs ??????

He seemed pleased to see it ( no Lost photos on the table ), it was not a big part for him but he told me they flew him out to Hawaii and said ' be mean to the guy '. Very friendly and happy for a photo with with me.

I always enjoy the Fridays as not too crowded and when I arrived around lunchtime it was very quiet. Met Jeff Kober, William Atherton, Joseph Gatt and Giancarlo Esposito, all great ( all happy with posed photos except Giancarlo ). Possibly the friendliest is Joseph Gatt who wrote a great inscription on my Banshee photo and came around from behind the table for a photo. I had a Lost screenshot for William Atherton to sign and could not believe the crew member with him had never heard of the show !!. That was all for me at this event. I know everyone seems to prefer this room but I miss the concourse upstairs it was more spread out and I like just walking around seeing how popular certain guests are and who interacts with fans etc etc and as this room is quite small it really notices if you do a couple of laps and feels as though you are a little stalkerish !

Just went on the Sunday, arrived around 10.30'ish. Met Mira Furlan who was very quiet but smiled at me, she was no posed photos. Robert Knepper was good and friendly and added his character name to the picture I got signed, he was no posed photos. John Amos and Bruce Davison allowed photos at the table and Bruce told me a couple of great stories about my favourite TV writer. My star meet of the day was Scott MacDonald, I'm a massive NYPD Blue fan and although his appearance was only a few lines the screen capture photo of him also included one of his close friends ( I did not know they were that friendly ) who was in 6 episodes. The upshot is that he offered to take my photo back to the USA to get his friend to sign it as well and then its going to be sent to me. That's above and beyond what anyone could expect and it absolutely made my day.

Got there around ten past nine Sunday morning and strolled straight in, it was really quiet. Only needed to meet Walter Jones who was a nice guy and told me some stories about the two shows he appeared in which I was interested ( non Power Rangers ). The guy in front of me asked for a photo even though there was a no posed photo sign and Walter said he was not supposed to and pushed his photo shoot but then posed for a photo anyway ( I didn't like to ask ). More guests than normal seemed to have no posed photo signs up and I hope this isn't the start of their agents or whoever sensing a way to make more income. As always many thanks to Showmasters for putting on the event from the crowds I saw on Sunday morning it was certainly no big money maker for them !! At more and more events lately the only queues seem to be at Dr Who related guests I just really hope it is still worth the expenses in bringing over guests from the USA.

Had a great day on the Sunday, althought the early bird queue seemed really long once the doors opened it moved as quick as you could walk. I met Adrienne Barbeau, Peter Kent, Danny Glover and William B Davis, I had a photo shoot with William B Davis and enjoyed the Peter Kent and Danny Glover talks.

I only went on the Sunday, Ethan Phillips was great he wanted to know what I dreamt about the night before and told me about his dream involving a brothel and leprosy, honestly ! I had a screen shot from NYPD which he loved and showed it to Vaughan Armstrong which was cool as he had signed an NYPD Blue photo for at Coventry a couple of years ago. Mark Rolston also signed an NYPD Blue shot for me and remembered his appearance fondly saying that friends told him he had captured the essence of a New Yorker which he was proud of. Christopher Heyerdahl was great, I got a Hell on Wheels photo signed and he seems really keen on the show and now I can't wait for the second series from what he told me. Dean Cain signed a Las Vegas phto I had and remembered how much fun he had working on the show, he was the only one of the four you couldn't get a photo at the table with but I saw a sign saying no flash photography so I guess he has a light sensitivity problem or similar. I was only there for about an hour or so, I think the biggest sign of the times was how much cheaper everything appeared to be on the stalls so the economy may also partly be responsible for how quite it seemed to be.

I've been to every big event for the last few years, if you look at my postings on the forum they have never been anything but completely flattering but this was a shambles. I feared the worst when the forum was appealing for volunteers just a few days ago. This event cannot be run by well meaning but completly overwhelmed volunteers, in turnover terms the money spent by showmasters on guests and us on photos and autographs etc runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds if not millions and yet the entrance information on queues etc is a piece of A4 paper stuck to the wall. Gillian Anderson was one of the best guests ever to appear at a UK convention in terms of rareity etc but if I thought every Showmasters event would be like today I would never ever go again, and I spend a lot of money at them !!!.

Whilst I appreciate the photos take a time to process etc there is no explanation as to why a large pile of Gillian Anderson photos from the 9.30 am session sat in a pile whilst the two or three girls laying out the photos brought ones straight from the room behind to the tables for display ( this was around 2pm ). If you lay out the earlier photos first then you won't have crowds of people pushing to get photos from around 5 hours earlier. Also why on earth were the Gillian Anderson photos in at least 4 different places, you knew how many photos there were as you'd sold the tickets surely this must give an indication as to how much space to leave for each guest !!

Utter utter shambles, but saved me money as If I'd queued up I would have missed what was paying for before I got to the ticket desk. 1.... Why not have a queue exclusively for cash payments, each of the 4 or so serving were taking cash or cards 2.... Why not have one queue and then the person at the front goes to the next available server, far fairer then having to guess which queue may move quicker.

The people behind didn't make it a free for all, they did what they were told. Upon arrival there was no one to say which queue to join so everybody guessed. Then a chap I think from Olympia went to the back of the queues which were by now past the Pizza Express on the corner and told everyone to go down the road ( probably a helath and safety thing as at roughly the same time they blocked the road to traffic ) so sudenly all of us in the queues saw everyone pouring past us to the right. Then once we were back in a snakelike formation someone from Showmasters told everyone to just go for it via the two doors for pre paid tickets. Basically I saw dozens of people way behind me in the queues going in ahead of me. By the time we did get in it the queue for talk tickets were so long you would not have been served by the time some talks and photos had started. I was going to get a ticket for the X-Files talk but could not..... Guys if you can afford to turn away money in this economy you must be doing very well..... Why not let people pay on the door for ther early talks ???

I'll be there early enough to be the first one to complain that the people at the start of the pay on the day queue are getting in before those a little way back in the pre-paid queue !!

Went on the Friday morning, first met Sean Astin who wrote a great inscription on my screenshot from Las Vegas. Next Lance Henriksen who told me they are this close to getting the go ahead for a Millennium film. John Schuck was great and we chatted for a few minutes. The star for me was Erick Avari, we chatted for a good while about his appearance in my no.1 show NYPD Blue and he told me a couple of great behind the scenes stories. All 4 happily posed for a photo, they were the only 4 guests I needed to meet, roll on LFCC.

Had no interest in meeting DT so turned up at 9:45 and sailed straight in with my early bird ticket. Met Kitty Swink who was great, I had a NYPD screen capture from her small appearance on the show, she gave me an email address as she is doing some theatre work with a main cast member from the show and said she will make sure I get a signed photo from them. That made my day and you could tell from the Star Trek talk that Kitty and her husband Armin are thoroughly decent nice people. Got a Saw picture signed by Sean Patrick Flanery, he was friendly and posed for a photo. Thankfully I went to the Star Wars talk as Debbie Lee Carrington announced a work offer meant she had to leave early, hearing this I went straight to her desk and got a Total Recall photo signed for my collection. Walked around a bit and went to some more talks ( always interesting even when regarding shows I don't watch ). The sound has a lot to do with the way people talk, you could hear every word Anneke Wills said which is a trademark of many well trained actors. Thoroughly enjoyed the day and already looking forward to the new Bluewatere vent next year.

Most of the questions were Aliens related, but she spoke about how Alfred Hitchcock treated her and not being able to hang around much with Shirley McLaine due to her foul mouth ( McLaines not Veronicas ). Now alright I know she was a child actress but how do you talk about names like that and Audrey Hepburn and still look so good !

A great day, the crowds were massive and hopefully they made it profitable for showmasters so they can get more great guests next time. Arrived around 9.30 and was in within minutes with my early bird ticket, grabbed some talk tickets. Met Derek Jacobi first, he liked my Frasier photo and appreciated the irony that the episode opened with his signing photos at a sci-fi convention. I had an NYPD Blue picture for my collection from the episode Peter Jurasik appeared in which he liked, seeing Dennis Franz in the picture Peter said I've got soemthing here you might like and delved into a box of photos under his chair. He produced a magnificent b/w photo ( and it looked like he only had one ) of him and Denis Franz on the set of Hill Street Blues, signed it and said it was a present. He absolutely made my weekend, what a great guy, the photo will be treasured. Met Tom Sizemore and got a Heat photo signed ( thankfully took one with me as there were none on the desk ), he commented it was a rare image and answered a question I had about the film. Met Joel Gretsch, I started off by asking him what the chances were of him giving me Jacqueline McKenzies phone number, he made out to write it across my photo and was appreciative of my liking the 4400 and answered a question I had about the show. Had got my other signatures last night so spent more time at the talks, Mark Sheppards was great and I was interested to hear about the BBC daily expenses and food compared to the US shows he worked on. I've never watched Star Trek but knew Brent Spiner's talk would be fun and he kept us all entertained with stories and recollections etc. The Tom Sizemore talk was interesting as he warmed up through it , obviously not that at ease with the format to start with by the end he was a lot more expansive and I spent hours thinking about his last answer in which he revealed he ran through $42,000,000 ( yes 42 Million dollars ) whilst he had his problems. The Robert Knepper talk was great and gave some interesting insights into an actors life and process etc. Finished off with the Veronica Cartwright talk which again contained some great stories. Wow was it hot and crowded ( and some people could use a tin of de-oderant ) but what a great event, already looking forward both to next years and the other Showmasters events before then.

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